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By Robert Balajadia
The 2014 GDOE-IIAAG Middle School All-Island Basketball Tournament’s losers bracket quarterfinals played out Tuesday night at the Tamuning gym where the IMS Warriors took out the Untalan Wildcats and the St. John’s Knights easily defeated the Jose Rios Voyagers.
IMS Warriors 47, Untalan Wildcats 35
Warriors’ Napu San Luis poured in 27 points and shouldered the load late in the second half to pull away from the Wildcats after the Wildcats fought back from a double-digit lead.
The Warriors grabbed a 22-12 lead at the half, but the Wildcats were quick to get back in the game after relentlessly attacking the basket. Tahj Salas scored back-to-back buckets for the Wildcats to cut the lead 23-17 minutes into the second half.
After a forcing two turnovers, Salas attacked the rim to tie the game at 25 and followed up on the next possession giving the Wildcats their first lead of the game, 27-25.
With the score tied at 29, San Luis began to takeover stripping the ball and converting on the fast break layup to give IMS the lead 31-29. San Luis continued to attack the rim getting to the foul line to extend the IMS lead. While there, San Luis was able to grab his own rebound off a missed free throw while hitting a layup to further the lead 35-29.
San Luis grabbed two consecutive steals that led to two straight buckets getting the score up to 41-33 putting the game out of reach.
The Warriors set up a semifinals match against the BMS Roadrunners at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, who were the top team in the GDOE middle school basketball league and the top seed in the tournament.
St. John’s 42, Jose Rios 27
Knight’s Michael Min grabbed control of the game from the early going and never let it go.
Min finished with 16 points, but was the floor general for the Knights igniting fast breaks and creating matchup problems on defense. Min scored five of Knight’s first 12 points, matching the Voyagers total in the opening minutes.
Min hit a pull-up jumper with no time left on the shot clock over a Voyagers defender right before the half ended with the Knights heading into halftime up 24-11.
The Knights continued to push the pace in the second half as Min and teammate Takumi Simon tacked on three point jumpers to go up by 24 points, leading 38-14 with three minutes left in the game.
The Voyagers fought hard in the final going with Cloyd Rosas netting two buckets ending the game on a 13-2 run to final the score 42-27.
The Knights will play the FBLG Hawks at 6:30 p.m. in the Semifinals on Thursday.
